Being a Hero

“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God” (John Gillespie Magee, Jr).

Recently, I stumbled across the NASA channel, almost completely by accident. I’ve been watching it on and off since.

A few days ago, they paid tribute to a long-serving astronaut, John Young, who passed away at the age of 87 on Friday. I confess that before then, I had no idea who he was.

It turns out he was the only astronaut to fly on the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle missions. He flew the first manned Gemini mission and was the commander of the inaugural Space Shuttle voyage. He served in NASA for 42 years, giving him the longest career of any astronaut.

You can read more about him here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Young_(astronaut)

And yet I had never heard of him before. I knew John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin, but for some reason I had gone through my entire life not knowing about this fascinating American.

I can’t help thinking about the chapter in Hebrews about the Faith Hall of Fame that talks about Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. It also mentions that many others were just as faithful, though less well known. Many of them died without ever seeing the fruition of their hopes, yet they never wavered in their faith.

There may be some heroes that you might run across and never know it. Maybe, one day, you will be considered a hero to some because you persevered and kept believing in times when it would have been much easier to give up. They will see your life and say, “He never gave up. He kept on showing up every day, no matter what. If he could do it, then maybe so can I.”

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